Philippine President visits Vietnam Philippine President Rodrigo Roa Duterte paid an official visit to Vietnam from September 28-29 at the invitation of President Tran Dai Quang. During the visit, President Duterte held talks with the host’s counterpart Tran Dai Quang; called on General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong; had a meeting with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc; and attended the State Banquet hosted by President Tran Dai Quang and received the delegation of Vietnam Business Community. During their meetings, they agreed to increase the exchange of high-level and other visits as well as people-to-people exchanges, uphold established bilateral cooperation mechanisms, and effectively implement the agreements signed between the two countries, especially the 9th Joint Commission on Bilateral Cooperation at the Foreign Minister level to be held in the Philippines in 2017. They noted the growing trade and investment relations between the two countries, and called on businesses to further increase the volume of two-way trade and investment; to enhance the environment in order to be conducive for businesses of both countries to invest in potential areas, including agriculture, food processing, tourism services, infrastructure; to consider the extension of the Memorandum of Agreement on Rice Trade and convene the 2nd Joint Commission on Trade. The leaders reaffirmed their commitment to maintaining and promoting peace, security, stability, safety and freedom of navigation and overflight, as well as unimpeded commerce in the region particularly in the East Sea, while calling for the peaceful resolution of disputes including full respect for legal and diplomatic processes,…